More specifically, it suggested that the government raise $500 million a year by tacking on an extra $10,000 fee for each newly created H-1B visa or $15,000 for each new green card. This money can then be used to offer better education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for Americans. Microsoft noted that not enough Americans are skilled in these areas to keep up with demand.

In addition to raising the number of visas offered, Microsoft wants the government to give 20,000 extra green cards per year.

H-1B visas allow foreign workers to come to the U.S. temporarily to work in their field. They can renew their visas every three years. Green cards, on the other hand, allow foreign workers to live in the country permanently. Currently, the government offers 65,000 visas a year, but in the past has seen numbers as high as 195,000.

Microsoft is one of the largest sponsors when it comes to H-1B visas. Ten percent of its 57,400 U.S. workforce are H-1B visa holders. From 2010 to 2011, it applied for about 850 visas annually for new employees on their very first H-1B visa. In 2011, Microsoft sponsored over 4,700 H-1B workers for green cards.

Many worry, however, that Microsoft is just looking for cheap labor. An issue is that Microsoft and other corporations don't need to prove that there aren't skilled Americans to fill these jobs. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) even warned that there are "inadequate safeguards" that protect skilled Americans from being booted out of jobs for cheaper foreign workers.

"The biggest myth people have is that a company like Microsoft somehow looks to foreign workers as an easy supply to displace American workers," said Karen Jones, Microsoft's deputy general counsel for human resources. "We simply cannot find qualified Americans to fill these jobs."

An analysis of Microsoft's green card applications shows that 25 percent were entry-level workers and 61 percent were a step up as software engineers or marketing managers. Most hold technical jobs, but most also make fewer than six figures while many graduates usually demand over $100,000 annual salaries.

On top of that, there are totally unnecessary required classes for tech and science degrees, such as requiring a class on writing a research paper for a degree in computer security or computer programming. (I understand how it applies to science, but computer security has no research going on with it, and only high end computer science needs anything like that. One does not need to write research papers in order to design a game or app or secure a corporate network.) There are also totally unnecessary classes for a "well rounded education" that totally block people from being able to get degrees, such as a fine art requirement (I can't draw stick figures, my fingers don't obey me well enough to play music, I have absolute NO interest in poetry, and at 40 years old, such things have never, ever, EVER come up as a job requirement.)

In my experiences, going through 5 colleges now, English teachers seem to hate tech and science majors, anyway. In all 5 times I've been to college, I've gotten A' and B's (except for one semester where all my friend were gone, I was alone, and overtaken by depression) while I failed a simple English comp class, over and over again. It wasn't because of a lack of working for it. It was a flat out prejudice by English teachers. One, in a "write directions" paper, I spent 16 hours writing and rewriting instructions on how to build a computer from parts, and the best criticism she could come up with was "I don't like how this argument was formulated" and knocked my grade down to a D. Another teacher, some 20 years later in a totally different class and school, took a paper I spent 40 hours writing and marked me down 40% because I didn't italicize a single word in my reference. (It was 20% for "not having a valid reference" and another 20% for "referencing a non-existent reference.")

I run into this EVERYWHERE. I have tried and tried to get through college, with various degrees (I was very good in math and physics in high school, so my first major was theoretical physics, I have since moved on to computer science, computer programming, computer security, and finally computer systems management, all to no avail.) Some stupid required class that I certainly don't need keeps standing in my way. I didn't need Psychology, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Human Geography, Sociology, or the two repeat History classes that weren't any different from my high school classes, but I managed to get through them with mostly A's and a couple B's. I don't see why English classes should be the sole reason I can't get through. I certainly have the work ethic and intellect to get through it. Mensa scored me with a 170. I ace everything else without much effort. These English teachers just stand in my way like a huge wall. After so many papers, it becomes completely impossible to pass. I take extra time, do my best to make them as perfect as I possibly can, and they just tear my work down like it didn't matter.

I'm sick of it. I'm 40, I don't have a college degree, and I make more than the average college graduate my age just being a systems admin. I could be one of those people who could fill those programming positions, but English teachers just seem to want to keep me from it. How many others are the same way, I wonder?

Sorry - if the English teachers are a stickler for the formatting and they state this (Shrunk & White, for example), and you then proceed to ignore it, they're going to flunk you, no matter what your major is. Saying these standards aren't important and you have a high IQ isn't going to sway them a bit. Nor can you claim you have a great work ethic if you ignore these.

The point of writing in English comp is to articulate an argument. A paper describing how to assemble a computer lacks an argument...that's why she did not like it. Even something a trite as Intel vs AMD would have been a better paper than a tutorial, which is what you presented. I'll say that I did not understand this after 4 years of honors English classes in high school. It wasn't until college that this became clear. Writing is not about showing that you can demonstrate knowledge of both sides of an argument. It's about taking the information and then using it to make an assertion and to support it.

An AP score let me skip one semester of the two required for English comp and I was able to meet the second one taking a Western Civilization lit class, which covered writings throughout the Industrial Era. You may have found that more approachable. But if you don't think you need knowledge of economics or psychology or history to be your best...you're wrong. A programmer might have an easier time without these, but as a sysadmin you need to be able to work well with others, not be the unix troll in the closet.

Yes, the point of college is to produce well rounded individuals. If you want specific training you'll need to take private or online classes or attend a vocational college.

You're right in that a number of computer science jobs are heavily focused on experience rather than education, but there are many companies requiring a college degree. There are only so many jobs where it's okay for an employee to perform their core function but have problems communicating with customers or writing an email with correct punctuation. Employers will only put up with that until they find someone who's good at both.

The point of a Bachelor's degree is to teach you how to think -- although many universities appear to have abandoned that in favor of teaching _what_ to think.

This is my problem with the IT industry today and H1Bs. Most H1Bs come over here and can code in the language/API they're hired to code. However, anything more -- writing (even code documentation), speaking coherently, understanding _why_ they're coding something, or thinking beyond the spec isn't included.

Worse, as a whole, most of them act as if they've been raised to consider independent thought as a Bad Thing. This makes them great IT insects and terrible professionals.

On the corporate side, HR departments have really worked hard to turn software into an insectoid career. Nobody wants an engineer proper who solves problems; they want a code-robot with the right acronyms on his resume.

This is because actually evaluating the ability to think is hard and parsing a text resume for keywords is easy, but mostly because companies have shifted from the idea of retaining and nurturing a career employee to employing a disposable work unit.

This doesn't actually work as planned; it takes a lot of design overhead, QA, project management, and rework to handle the fact that you just hired a code generation unit and not a person.

> You must have missed the part where he said, "One, in a "write directions" paper". He would have gotten an F if he turned in an Intel vs AMD paper since that wasn't the assignment

hmm, I guess so. I have no idea what such a paper is, or why it would be in an English Comp class. And if it was a "write directions" paper that means what it sounds like, why would she complain about the argument presented?

"So, I think the same thing of the music industry. They can't say that they're losing money, you know what I'm saying. They just probably don't have the same surplus that they had." -- Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA